personally I don't think 1 track colab videos are much different than 1 track single editor videos from a viewer's perspective. whats so special to reward? less effort? yea it's a different way of thinking but to the average viewer I highly doubt that they will notice any strong difference between the two aside from a few extra names on the creator list.

However I think multi-track meps like Ayumix and AMV Hell should have their own category, not only due to the number of people who will vote for themselves but because as was said before the "Jack of all trades, master of none" effect...

AtomX wrote:To be honest, the ONLY reason I even thought about this distinction (other than Ileia's idea for Best Duo) was the fact that the category name (in the VCA Forum anyway) was labeled as "Best Collaboration" instead of "Best Multi-Editor Project/Video" as it has been called in earlier years, which to me was meant to give special recognition to those bigger projects specifically.

The reason I renamed it to "Best Collaborative Video" was to accommodate for projects like Novem, which is a legitimate entry in the category but isn't the type of video to first jump into people's minds when they think "MEP".

Smaller scale collaborations have been allowed to compete in other categories, now that I think of it. I don't know how the database is set up to accommodate for that, though. I'd have to ask Vlad or Doki how they did it last year.

Tell ya what, what if we make a rough compromise this year and just rename the category to "Best Large-Scale Collaborative Project" and define large-scale as having seven editors or more? Collaborations with six or less editors would still get to compete in other categories. Assuming I can get someone to code this, how does that sound?

To be frank, I really do not mind if there is no special award for collaboration videos (ie; collaborative videos NOT under the big-MEP umbrella). I was simply concerned that because the category was being singled out as being specific to "collaborations" and not "MEPs," that it might potentially mean that it would be the only category it would show up in. If this isn't the case, I am certainly fine with not having a separate category (though I wouldn't be opposed to it either).

After asking around I found out that previous years seem to have been 3 or more people was in the Best MEP category and not eligible for any other category. Collabs of 2 people were treated the same as solo vids where they could be in all the other categories.

I think that solves the issue of small collabs, there's no need to a special category for them when they can already compete in all the regular categories. Although I'd suggest bumping it up to 3 people being treated as normal instead of 2 but going all the way up to six people seems like it's taking it to far. I can think of several projects with six or less editors that were clearly 'meps' instead of regular videos.

jasper-isis wrote:Tell ya what, what if we make a rough compromise this year and just rename the category to "Best Large-Scale Collaborative Project" and define large-scale as having seven editors or more? Collaborations with six or less editors would still get to compete in other categories. Assuming I can get someone to code this, how does that sound?

I feel this is an adequate compromise. It isn't everything I'd like, but that's the very definition of compromise.

godix wrote:After asking around I found out that previous years seem to have been 3 or more people was in the Best MEP category and not eligible for any other category. Collabs of 2 people were treated the same as solo vids where they could be in all the other categories.

I think that solves the issue of small collabs, there's no need to a special category for them when they can already compete in all the regular categories. Although I'd suggest bumping it up to 3 people being treated as normal instead of 2 but going all the way up to six people seems like it's taking it to far. I can think of several projects with six or less editors that were clearly 'meps' instead of regular videos.

What Jay and you say pretty much sums up how I feel. Videos made by two or three editors have already been rewarded in the past in 'normal categories' (Mike/Meri and Nate/Jeff come to mind) so I don't think they need any real distinction. If they're good, they'll win. Why are people concerned otherwise?

I'm not "concerned." I just feel they're different. If the viewer can't tell, fine, for the VCAs, but this is why we need some sort of ECAs. Only individuals who have at least one video cataloged in the database will be eligible. Then a category for best one track collaboration makes sense.